The Apple's Core
by Necrotic-Sonata
Summary: Fifty Years after Kira falls, a new one arises from his ashes. With little information and few supporters, the niece of Near, the new L, and two of her allies attempt to do what Near had, and catch Kira. But, Kira may be in thier midst. *Major Spoilers!*


"Death Note…"

She snapped with slender fingers in front of her uncle's face. Nate shook his head, his aged face contorting into one of anger and horror, making him look even older.

"How would you know about such a thing? Have you been hacking into confidential police files again, Khristian? That's a felon, you know."

She fluffed the couch pillow, avoiding the question. Reaching for the light switch, a single candle in the corner being the only source of light, Nate waved his hand. He had some weird paranoia with light bulbs or something, at least that's what she had gathered.

"So what can you tell me about it?"

Nate pressed his lips together in a thin line. He surmised that this day would inevitably come, but he'd hoped he had been wrong. Letting his niece hang around him while he did SPK work had been a bad idea. She had already been far too clever for her own good, but it was only because of seeing his work that she was so much more ingenious.

"I don't know anything," He lied.

Khristian shot him an exasperated look, as if to ask, _"Do I have stupid written across my forehead?"_ Coming to a conclusion in his mind, he paused for admitting for the first time, aloud or in his mind…

"It's true that… there was, in fact, once such a thing… a book called Death Note. But that is all in the past. You needn't worry about it anymore. It's all far too much trouble for you to get mixed up in, trust me. And I wouldn't try snooping around if I were you. Everyone who knew anything… Is dead now, Khris."

He walked past his niece, patting her shoulder as he did. Khristian's brow furrowed and she bit her thumb. A habit she had when deep in thought.

"But… What about you, Uncle Nate? I know you were in the investigation. You're the best they had. And though you're well past your prime… I'd say that even fifty years ago, as young as you had to have been, you were still a keen mind-"

Nate sighed, resting his hand on the door frame. He glanced over his shoulder at her, the candlelight casting shadows across his face, making him look older and wearier than ever.

"That notebook… The only thing it ever brought anyone… was misery, destruction, and death. I will tell you that much. Other than that, you don't need to know anything. However possible it is that another one of them is found, promise me that you'll burn it. Whatever you do… Don't use it. The second you do, your life as you know it… It is over."

Khristian dropped her hand onto her lap. Nate quietly shut the door behind him, closing it with a soft click.

"Uncle…"

She didn't know why her uncle was so sensitive about the subject, but one thing was for sure: Something must have happened to scar him during his time in the investigation.

Whatever it was, she was about to find out in the next six months to come. As her legal guardian, wherever he went, so did she, and the ICPO summoned him on a case involving both Japanese and American citizens.

If anyone would know, the Japanese would.

* * *

"_Death Note…"_

Khristian cupped her chin in her hand, only half listening to the lecture the teacher was giving on human anatomy.

"_What exactly is it?"_

The bell rang, and she subconsciously gathered her books in her arms and headed to her Calculus class, still lost in thought.

"_It's obviously a note… or some kind of paper… that brings about one's death. That much is self-explanatory in the name…"_

She promptly dropped her books on her desk before settling into a lecture. The teacher wrote on the board.

"_Uncle Nate said that everyone who was associated with this note was burden with misery and death, so it'd only natural for someone to deny it if they every really had come in direct contact with it. However, I can't be sure if he in fact is the only person alive who recalls the events of the Death Note, and he isn't telling me anything. Knowing my uncle, he'd have deleted all records of the Death Note under his direct SPK files. If I'm lucky, the Chief Matsuda wouldn't have erased such important files, especially if there is a threat of the Death Note making a second appearance, and- "_

"Does anyone know what this means? Ah, yes- Miss River. An explanation, please?"

Khristian blinked, caught off guard. She stood up, clearing her mind of the Death Note and read the board:

∫_b/a __'(x)dx__(b)-__(a)_

"Umm... This is the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. This is the insight that the integral is the same as the antiderivative, the inverse of deriative of the curve itself, which in turn enables evaluation of the integral without relying on a Riemann sum.The Fundamental Theorem is often presented as a single proof, but can be broken down into two theorems- "

A boy with unruly jet black hair and wild blue eyes snorted, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

"English, if you would, Einstein."

A few chuckled. Whether if it was at her choice of words or at the boy's ignorance, Khristian couldn't decide.

"Oh… Sorry… Well, it is basically the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus… It's a theorem in which the integral is identical to the antiderivative-"

"Okay, you know, it's better if you didn't talk at all," The boy scoffed, propping his feet on the table.

"Well, it isn't her fault it you're a moron, Sakujo."

The boy whipped around in his seat, his insane eyes surveying the room, as if daring whoever spoke to say it again. They didn't.

Khristian sat back down. The teacher frowned.

"Okay then, Mister Sakujo, maybe you would like to come up here and demonstrate how the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus is applied?"

Sakujo snorted again, folding his arms behind his head.

"No, amazingly, I wouldn't."

"Perhaps you would volunteer yourself to do so anyways, before I volunteer you for a detention."

Sighing heavily, he swept his feet off of the desk and shoved his hands into his pockets, dragging himself to the board. As he moved, Khristian got a better look at him. He wore the traditional school uniform, but the sleeve of his left arm was ripped, and several black spiked jewelry occupied the space on his wrists and neck. She also noticed that his lip was pierced, as well as his right brow. His tongue played with his lip ring as he watched the teacher write a new equation on the board:

_f '(x) 3 x and g '(x) 2 x__ 2_

_lim (f(x) + g(x)) - (f(1) + g(1)) / (x - 1); x approaches 1._

"If f(x) and g(x) are differentiable functions such as that, please explain what the limit is equal to."

He lazily placed a piece of chalk between his index and middle fingers, drawing a single number over top of the problem.

5.

He began to return to his seat, when the teacher called after him.

"Mister Sakujo? Kindly explain what you have done to the other students who do not understand how you arrived at such an answer."

His mouth twitched violently, as he was debating swearing at her. Finally, he jabbed the board with the chalk he'd used earlier.

"See here? The limit given right here is the definition of the derivative of … that equation right there. Set equal to1, and... The derivative of them added together is equals those numbers added together in derivatives, so the given limit of '(1) + g '(1) has to equal 5. Simple enough for you?"

He threw the chalk on the floor and returned to his seat, kicking his feet back up onto the desk, in which a fell seconds, he fell asleep.

* * *

"Hey there, River, Maria Agnesi," A male's voice called.

Khristian furrowed her brow, wondering who would still be at the school at this time of hour, only to turn around and see the cocky boy with the lip ring. He strutted towards her, a black bag slung over his shoulder. Sakujo. She pressed her books against her chest.

"What is it?" She asked, slightly defensive.

She'd barely known the boy, and she already didn't like him.

"What would you say to doing my Calc homework tonight? And every night from now 'til the end of the year?"

Khristian stared at him, appalled by his nerve. She pursed her lips.

"I would say that you need to do it yourself. Earn your own grade."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there."

She began to walk away, when he grabbed her shoulder and twirled her back around to face him.

"Listen. I can _do_ it myself. I just don't _want_ to. I don't have the motivation, and I don't have the time. I can ace _every_ question, _every_ aspect of _every_ class in this school or any other, all on my own. So you see you should actually consider me being generous to you, River."

"_Generous_?" Khristian laughed.

"I'm not honored by your offer. I suggest you make time. Contrary to your seeming opinion, I have a life as well, and you don't see me bumming other people to do my work. Make time."

"I'm not "bumming", River. I tried asking nicely, but you refused. Now I'm telling you," He sneered.

"Some things can't be put off. My life is more important than yours. I don't know what you have going on, and I don't care."

"You- !"

She tried weaseling out of his grasp, only to be thrown against the lockers behind her and have his arms pin her shoulders. Gasping, a sudden scent filled her nostrils as he pinned her down further, pressing her elbow into her collarbone, smelling oddly of…apples.

"_Is his book bag filled with… apples?"_

"Khristian."

Both she and Sakujo turned their heads to see Nate standing there, hands in his jacket pockets.

"Sakujo Aiken. I was told about you by Chief Matsuda. If the Chief of the ICPO himself went through the trouble of warning me about you, I thought I'd better keep a close eye on my niece. Looks like I was right."

Upon seeing Nate's badge, Aiken immediately stiffened. He tutted, releasing his hold on Khristian.

"I was just asking a favor of her, sir."

"Asking a favor…?" Nate questioned, pulling Khristian to his side.

"…Or threatening her?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aiken insisted.

"Mhmm. I'm sure. Just know that I find that you've touched my niece again that I'll have you sent to jail, Sakujo. You're eighteen now. Juvenile Hall isn't open to you anymore."

* * *

"Sit here, Khris," Nate instructed.

Chief Matsuda shook hands with him as she obeyed and sat down. She took note that Nate didn't look too happy to see Matsuda and the ICPO. All the same, the same could be said for the ICPO.

"I've brought my niece," Nate added unnecessarily.

"She'll wait here in the computer lab, if that's alright with you. She's a good kid, and won't touch anything."

He threw a warning look at Khristian before following the others into the opposite room. For a few moments, she sat twiddling her thumbs, until the lure of finding possible information about the Death Note proved to great.

"_It'll just take a moment… If I'm quick about it, I shouldn't get caught…"_

She ran to the closest computer, bringing life into it. Her fingers flew across the keys, entering her uncle's username and password. Bold red letters blinked on the screen.

**Invalid password.**

"Damn it!" She swore under her breath.

"_He must be logged in now, or he is using the account himself now, and with a computer of this bit, its capacity cannot hold the same two users…"_

Then again, there was always…

Her fingers soared across the keyboard once more, this time entering her mother's username and password.

**Invalid password.**

She brought her thumb to her mouth.

"_I could always try to hack… But with an ICPO computer, would that really be safe? ... No, of course it wouldn't. Besides, I don't have the time to do something so dangerous, especially now… If I'm caught by the ICPO hacking into ICPO computer hardware, I might as well waltz in there now and declare myself a felon and demand to be thrown in jail. No… Now is definitely not the time. But if not now, then…?"_

An idea crossed her mind, her eyes growing alight.

"_That's it! It's pretty risky, but if I can pull it off and get it past Chief Matsuda and Nate, then I am guaranteed to learn something about this Death Note!"_

She shut down the computer and opened her backpack, settling into homework.

"_Soon… I will know all that I need to know…"_

* * *

"…Just in, breaking news!"

Nate groaned, glaring at the television screen for interrupting his program. Khristian felt her heart skip a beat.

"_At last… It's here!"_

"We've just been informed… That the "God" known as Kira has returned."

Nate's bowl of Doritos hit the floor with a loud crunch. His eyes widened with silent horror. Khristian ignored her uncle's reaction, as she knew it would be something along those lines.

"_So… 'Kira' is the name of this supposed 'God'…"_

"We, along with several other stations, have all been demanded to air the broadcast that you are all about to see. Several areas have been given the same orders form Kira, to broadcast this televised order."

The anchor's face vanished, replaced with a static background and old English lettering spelling out a single word:

_Kira._

Nate's eyes widened even more, his pupils like pinpricks.

"People of Japan… I am the God," An emotionless, stoic voice announced.

"You tried to suppress my reign… I will show you that this is impossible. I will not be put in the back of your minds like a read book. In three days, at sixteen hundred hours… SPK… Near… I shall show you the price of defiance."

The screen went black, the occasional wave of static washing over the screen as the television was switched back to its normal broadcasting. A violent shudder ran down his spine. Even when the anchor came back on, and long after the regular program was being broadcasted, he still hadn't moved. Khristian watched Nate out of her peripheral vision, straining to suppress a smile.

"_I knew that it had been the SPK that had brought this 'God', now that I know him as Kira, to justice, but what part my uncle played… That was a mystery. However, seeing as he had recently told me that 'everyone else was dead,' and taking my knowledge that I knew the youngest of the group had taken the alias "Near", it would have made my uncle thirteen at the time, as this investigation took place fifty years ago, and he is sixty-three now. The chances that someone younger, and more brilliant in the same instant, than my uncle existed on this team, are calculated below the vicinity of one percent. Seeing how frightened he is by this fake message I invented by 'The God of the New World'…"_

Her attention turned back to the television, her smile broadening.

"… _Uncle Nate is, without a doubt, Near, the one who apprehended Kira, the disillusioned 'God'…"_

Her smile receded slightly.

"_And now, even more important than scaring my uncle…"_

She bit her thumb.

"… _There are people out there who, even after fifty years, must still remember and believe in Kira's teachings. As insignificant as this message may seem, it holds profound meaning for those who know what to look for. To invoke that buried fear, and that_ faith_… Those who still believe in Kira will try to find him in the next three days. I will pose as Kira, and drop hints at school among the students there that I am Kira. They will be fooled that I am in fact who I pretend to be, and Kira's followers will then be mine. Surely, one of them will have it… The Death Note. If I could just get my hands on the note, I could figure out just what kind of note it is. Of course, he will want proof that I am who I claim, and will most likely demand that I kill someone using the note… I could try and arrange a death… at least stage one… But if it is so much as a fraction of a second off, the bearer of the Death Note will become suspicious, and then it would be over. It is highly likely that he might even use the note to kill me. And what if there are rules, or specifications to using the Death Note?… So it will have to be precise… There is no death that I can provoke that could possibly be one hundred percent accurate… I will have to stage a death. But, who could I use that could "die" so perfectly? And there is also a possibility that the one carrying the Death Note might ask for another killing aside from the one that will happen in three days. If that becomes the case, then how would I contact another person to "kill" so suddenly, especially if he specifies a certain time? It would be easiest to obtain a real Death Note to show the followers… surely Near would have one… But what guarantee do I have that he will let me have it? What if it was- No, he would not destroy something such as a Death Note. They would keep it in a safe place, away from public knowledge, where just anyone can't come in and see it…If only I had a Death Note…! "_

She lowered her hand, turned to face her uncle. He had finally moved. He was now picking up the Doritos from the floor, when she crawled over to him.

"Uncle Nate," she whispered, aiding him in his pickup of the chips.

"Was that… a reference to the Death Note in which you have told me about?"

"It's nothing to worry about," He assured her, smiling softly.

But his smile didn't touch his eyes.

"You're so pale," She murmured, touching his face.

"It wasn't nothing… Was it?"

"To tell you the truth…" He began, shuffling back onto the couch, bowl of chips in his lap.

"You know that I was part of the SPK team fifty years ago."

Khristian nodded, smiling on the insane.

"_Here it comes! I will not have to do as much work as I'd originally thought! He is about to tell me everything I need to know!"_

"Kira… That is the name of the 'God' you have heard so much about."

She nodded again, wide-eyed and feigning curiosity.

"I knew this, Uncle. I also know that you are the one they called 'Near'. You were only thirteen at the time, and Near was a child prodigy. You said everyone else was dead, so that only leaves…"

Nate smiled again. This time, it was genuine.

"I should've known."

"I also know that this Kira had a rival by the alias of 'L'."

"This is true…"

"Tell me about L."

"You don't need to know about him."

"Kira killed him, didn't he?" Khristian persisted.

"I was told by a man name Aizawa that a Shinigami called Rem killed him."

Khristian gasped, her jaw dropping. Her eyes widened in terror as she backed away from her uncle.

"Shi-Shinigami?!" She breathed.

"They… they really exist?!"

Nate nodded solemnly.

"It's like a package deal with the possession of a Death Note. He who owns a notebook, has a Shinigami who owns the book accompany him… most of the time anyway. In special conditions- Conditions not concerning you- a Shinigami is not present."

"Can humans see the Shinigami?"

"Once a human touches a Death Note, he can see the Shinigami who owns that particular notebook. To see different Shinigami, one must touch their corresponding notebooks."

He closed his eyes, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"…But the Death Note is not a threat."

"But Kira just came on the TV!" She insisted.

"Despite that, you refuse to believe that Kira has returned?"

"I do refuse to believe this," Nate replied.

"I know for a fact that this 'Kira' is not the same one that existed fifty years ago, because that is exactly when he died. I saw his body after he had passed, on a flight of steps. This person is most likely either a follower trying to revive Kira's power and prestige through himself… Or a mediocre imbecile, only seeking attention through the public."

He sighed, taking the bowl to the trash.

"Either way, this is an issue that needs to be dealt with by the ICPO. They will want my help, of course, since I am inevitably always involved in this Kira business."

He smiled again.

"… Not that I'm complaining. If this imposter is anything like the real Kira, we are finally going to have some fun. But Khris?"

"Yes?"

"You will not be involved."

"Ah! Uncle! No fair!"

"There's nothing unfair about trying to preserve your life a few more years."

"But I want to be past of this investigation! I am offering to put my life on the line for the SPK!"

"No arguments. You will not never see the light of this investigation, or anything remotely like it."

"I just have one question," Khristian replied dully.

"Hmm?"

"Do you still have the Death Note, Uncle Nate?"

Nate shook his head.

"No. I no longer have the book. And even if I did, do you really think that I would admit as much to you?"

"No, I guess not…"

"Exactly. Now get to bed."

"Yes, Uncle…"

Khristian crawled into bed, a satisfied smirk on her lips.

"_Now, I know for sure that Uncle Nate does in fact know where it is, which implies… That it is probably under custody of the Japanese Police Force, or the ICPO… All that remains is for me to find a way to retrieve it for a few hours…"_

She closed her eyes, snuggling into the bed sheets.

"_Yes… Everything is going exactly as I planned… His age must be catching up with him, for not even Near can see through my ruse…" _


End file.
